Page 35 - Christie's Asian Art Auctions PARIS December 2019

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TRES RARE ROBE IMPERIALE SEMI-FORMELLE EN SOIE The present robe was made an empress or a high-ranking court
BRODEE A FOND JAUNE, LONGPAO woman. The Huangchao Liqi Tushi, ‘Illustrated Precedents for
CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, EPOQUE JIAQING (1796-1820) the Ritual Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court’, enforced in 1766,
La robe est délicatement brodée de trois médaillons sur chaque authorized three styles of semi-formal attire for empresses and high-
face et deux aux épaules abritant des dragons à cinq grifes parmi ranking court women, of which the present robe is the third style.
les nuages stylisés. Les dragons au centre et sur les épaules sont
représentés de face tandis que les dragons en partie basse sont The frst style is similar to the emperor’s longpao and is decorated
de profl regardant vers le haut. Le col et les manches soulignés with dragons amidst clouds, rather than within roundels, like on
de bordures lishui brodées de dragons à la poursuite de la perle the present robe. The second style is decorated with eight exposed
enfammée sur fond noir. L'intérieur de la robe est bordé de fourrure et dragon roundels and a ninth roundel hidden beneath the front overlap,
la doublure est en soie de couleur bleu pâle. all above a lishui border at the hem. The third and most rare style, like
Hauteur: 142 cm. (55æ in.), largeur: 181 cm. (71º in.) the present robe, was decorated with roundels only.
A similar example of a semi-formal robe of the third style, dated to
€15,000-20,000 US$17,000-22,000
£13,000-17,000 the Qianlong period (1736-1795) decorated with the addition of shou
characters within the dragon roundels, is in the University of Alberta
Museums, Mactaggart Art Collection, and is illustrated by J. Vollmer
PROVENANCE:
French private collection, acquired in the 19th century, thence by and J. Simcox in Emblems of Empire: Selections from the MacTaggart
descent in the family. Art Collection, Alberta, 2009, pp. 38-39. Vollmer and Simcox note
that this robe would have been part of a set which would have
VERY RARE IMPERIAL EMBROIDERED YELLOW SILK SEMI-
included a matching surcoat. The surcoat would have had identical
FORMAL `DRAGON’ ROBE, LONGPAO
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, JIAQING PERIOD (1796-1820) decoration to the robe, but embroidered on a blue, rather than yellow,
ground.
清嘉慶 黃地綉龍紋龍袍
來源：法國私人珍藏，于19世紀入藏，現家族傳承 A portrait of the Xiaoxian empress wearing a similar yellow semi-
formal robe of the third style can be found in Portraits of the Qianlong
Emperor and His Twelve Consorts, dated to 1736, by Giuseppe
Castiglione (1688-1766) and others, in the collection of The Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1969.31 (fg. 1). The painting shows the empress
wearing a robe nearly identical to the present robe. The robe worn by
the Xiaoxian empress has similar lavender clouds to the present robe.

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